Talk about the perfect weekend: First it’s my favorite holiday, then it’s the weekend in which our clocks “fall back” an hour, pretty much giving us a free hour to use as we see fit. Me? I’m using my spare time to catch up on some commentary tracks on some tasty terror flicks. I’ve listened to the commentaries for Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, and now I’m at the beginning of the track for The Exorcist. If there’s time, I might pop in the commentary for Blair Witch, which is one of the most amusing commentaries I’ve ever heard.
In between all this horror movie indulgence, I also finished my latest 50BC09 choice. I’m probably not going to write the review just yet, as I’m still trying to process it and figure out what I want to say about it. But now I’m one book away from being finished with library books. W00t, indeed.
I also wanted to tack on two honorable mentions to yesterday’s list of my favorite horror flicks (oh, and in case you were wondering, Halloween and The Haunting were both viewed yesterday). The reason these weren’t on my list is because I don’t own one of them, and I own the other but I’ve never had the courage to watch the DVD.
First is Tobe Hooper’s 1974 mind rip, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. This is the one that I don’t own, and I don’t think I ever will. If you’re looking for a movie that cuts way too close to the bone (ha ha) and leaves you feeling completely freaked out by the shear possibility of the entire plot, then you need to see this movie. Taking place along the back roads and secret pathways of Nowhere, Texas, Hooper drops you right into the steamy, sweaty, claustrophobic terror of his story and doesn’t relent until the very last frame. There’s slight exposition at the beginning, but the horrifying action is quick to begin and doesn’t let up for an instant. There is no reason for the terror…simply the fluke of being on the wrong property and encountering the WRONG person at the very wrong time. If you’re easily disturbed, this is probably a movie you’ll want to avoid. There are several squirm-inducing scenes, including the introduction of Leatherface, one that involves a meat hook, and a dinner scene in which Hooper brings us right into our protagonist’s face, filling the screen with an unflinching and unforgiving shot of the terror in her eyes. This is definitely a genre must-see, but it’s one that I think I can go without ever seeing again. That’s a kind of fear that you don’t need to repeat to remember.
Speaking of which, my second honorable mention is Gore Verbinski’s 2002 film The Ring, a remake of the Japanese horror movie, Ringu. I own this one, but I’ve never watched it. Why? The visuals messed with my head so badly that I couldn’t shake them for weeks after seeing this movie in the theater. I really can’t explain the rationale behind this. After all, I’ve seen dozens upon dozens of horror movies. Some stick with me longer than others…but I daresay none has messed with my mind quite as dramatically as The Ring. This fact actually irritates me, because beyond being a wonderful horror movie, this is gorgeously filmed. Again, if you are a film aficionado, you need to see this movie. Verbinski does wonders setting the perfect atmosphere through colors, shadow, and light. And all the actors were amazing, including Daveigh Chase as Samara, the freakiest little girl to hit the big screen since Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil. I so desperately want to watch this one again. I just need to figure out how I can do it without seeing those scenes that freaked me out so badly the first time. Is it wrong to watch an entire horror movie through the spaces in between one’s fingers? 😉
